Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) General Secretary and Katihar MP Tariq Anwar today said that the Bihar government should conduct an "impartial, time-bound probe," into the Rs 25 crore medical scam.
"Since there is financial involvement in the issue, it will be better for the state to go for an impartial,time-bound probe preferably by a retired High Court judge so that truth is laid in front of the public," Anwar told reporters here.
The NCP General Secretary, whose party is part of the JD(U)-RJD-Congress grand alliance in the state, however, stopped short of supporting the BJP demand for CBI inquiry into the scam.
"The government should get the scam probed as it deems fit. If the situation does not become clear even after it then CBI enquiry could be sought. It is not proper to give every probe to the CBI," added Anwar.
The saffron party led by former Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi has been insinuating that the scam was in the knowledge of former Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who did precious little to curb it.
Reacting to Modi's charges on Kumar, Anwar, who himself is a former Union minister said "these seemed to be political motivated".
"When Modi worked with Kumar for seven-and-a-half years then everything was fine. He never got tired of praising him.
Now he talks about Kumar's involvement in the scam. This seems to be politically motivated," Anwar added.
Financial irregularities in purchase of medicines, medical equipment and construction of health infrastructure tumbled out in the report of Accountant General (Audit), and Modi has been alleging since then about the involvement of bureaucrats, and demanding CBI probe into the entire affair.
The issue erupted during the monsoon session of the state legislature, when the opposition BJP raised it. It led to pandemonium with no transaction of business in Upper and Lower Houses for at least three days during the session.
Modi, Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Council, has claimed that several bigwigs are involved in the medical scam, which happened over the last one year and the financial irregularities could touch a whopping Rs 100 crore.
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